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Matangi Bound - Page 2

© Larry Low

Swimming ashore I didn't worry about the punt. It was only a second or two behind. I did have the presence of mind to tip the punt over and drain the dregs of the sea down the sloping sand. It wouldn't have done to have left it to slosh all over the Vuitton, now would it?

I took the luggage out first, towing the load through the surf and then swimming. I then went back for our guests. As luck would have it, as he was clambering over the stern, one of the men gave his ankle a lovely crack. The punt had chosen that moment to submerge, while the stern of the launch had risen. That did it! Noel gave me a nervous look.

It turned out that the diplomat had broken that ankle two months previously. It was still giving him the dickens but never quite this bad, Noel and I surmised from the singularly undiplomatic language emanating from one undoubtedly well-schooled in niceties. The victim got out his medication, a necessity for when the pain got too bad. He brandished a bottle of Scotland's finest. Of course we all had to have a snort. It's one of the unacknowledged hazards of the hospitality industry. I'll drink to that!

Perhaps it was Noel's mention of rou-rou soup that had given me a sudden hankering for Fiji. Rou-rou is a thick Fijian spinach concoction somewhat akin to split pea and ham in texture.

Noel and I did a reasonable job of looking after Malcolm's friends. It was a few years before Noel was in any position to cater to his own guests. However,running Laucala provided him with valuable experience. Noel did have a surprise or two up his sleeve, though, let me tell you.

One of the great things about Noel Douglas is that he's not too smug to ask questions or listen to advice. As it turned out, one of the unique features of Matangi Island is his quaint collection of tree house bures. An early guest had given Noel the idea and it had turned out to be an ecologically superb suggestion as well as being wildly popular.

A Pacific Almond tree occupied a spot that would have made a beautiful setting for a beach bure. Wild orchids and huge bird's nest ferns nestled in its branches. The guest suggested that Noel build a tree house.

The eleven beachside bures are nice but the three treehouse bures, in spite of the fact that you reach your own tree house by jaunting leisurely up a short flight of stairs, has an element best summed up as: Me Tarzan! Well not really, but the bures are expansive, cool, eminently private and in addition offer au naturelle outside showers. There is nothing like washing the salt off after a dive by rinsing off in an afternoon rain shower, which just happened to coincide with the man made one.

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